Jeep Is Thrilled With 15,000 Japanese Customers

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

American automotive brands have never really caught on with the typical Japanese consumer. While we’ve done numerous dives trying to understand why the gist is that our tastes don’t typically overlap and they generally prefer to buy domestic. Foreign marques are comparatively rare, frequently German, and are generally owned by those looking to flex their status with an imported luxury vehicle.

U.S. brands that were on the market began retreating as they began pulling smaller automobiles from their lineup. But Jeep has stuck it in there and things are reportedly beginning to pay off. The automaker’s distinctive styling seems to be resonating with people in Asia and it’s really the only historically American nameplate that’s managed to find an audience in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Fiat Chrysler Japan has yet to finalize arrangements to be fully integrated into the new Stellantis NV and a part of us wonders if that has anything to do with its rosy reporting. There’s a decent chance Groupe PSA didn’t want to keep Jeep operating within the region and it would behoove the brand to show it has merit before its Japanese offices run the risk of being shut down. It’s a wholly speculative scenario but not unrealistic and exactly what I would be doing in Jeep’s shoes.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, FCA Japan sales boss Hitoshi Ushikubo stated that Jeep deliveries are on pace to eclipse 15,000 units this year. While that’s less product than the company shifts in the U.S. over the average week, it still represents consistent growth in a market that never seemed interested in American (or French-Italian-American) automobiles.

From Bloomberg:

Despite the pandemic, Jeep’s Japan sales notched a 1.7 percent increase in 2020 to reach a record level for a seventh consecutive year.

“We’ve made efforts to fit with the Japanese market” by rolling out cars with right-hand drive, unlike General Motors and Ford, Ushikubo said. “Young people are looking for cars that allow them to present a part of their character,” he said, adding that a strong social media presence has also helped the brand.

Jeep sold 1,925 cars in March, 36 percent higher than the same month of 2020, which was impacted by COVID-19, with the Wrangler and Renegade marques the most popular, according to a statement Tuesday. Jeep ranked third last year among imported SUV brands in Japan.

While the Wrangler and Renegade are the brand’s most popular models in the region by far, Jeep offers other models in Japan. That’s arguably an achievement in itself. Most American automakers operating on the island typically limit themselves to a few specialty vehicles catering to a niche market and don’t have dedicated dealerships. Jeep has been far more ambitious and is even seeking to expand. According to Fiat Chrysler Japan CEO Pontus Häggström, the corporate strategy involves swelling its network of 80 dealerships to at least 100 by 2023.

While we don’t know if that’s going to make the brand a cash cow, Stellantis would be foolish not to identify the importance of Jeep in Asia. Younger drivers really seem to be gravitating toward the brand and it accounts for over half of group sales within the region. That’s a very big deal, made colossal by the fact that American brands were assumed incapable of breaking into the Japanese market. But how was this accomplished?

Jeep has claimed its success has everything to do with offering a desirable product not available elsewhere and actively catering to Japanese customers. Those Renegade sales aren’t a coincidence. Knowing the model’s diminutive stature would make it an ideal product for the market, Jeep started producing them in right-hand-drive, modifying their engines to cater to the local emission incentives, making sure the infotainment system was available in flawless Japanese and tossing them into region-focused marketing campaigns. The resulting efforts have made it the default American brand in the region. Jeep outsells every other American automotive brand by such a wide margin that they might as well not even be there.

But will Stellantis be appreciative of its modest growth?

[Image: NeydtStock/Shutterstock]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

More by Matt Posky

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 8 comments
  • Indi500fan Indi500fan on Apr 07, 2021

    Jeep is an amazing brand. They are pretty mediocre for the stuff they do 98% of the time, but people do love (and buy) that image for the 2% potential.

  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Apr 07, 2021

    Jeep embodies the wide open roads, big sky country and personal freedom and ruggedness of the American West. This may be nowadays a romantic illusion, but nevertheless it is a very powerful one that many people around the World envy and covet. If Stellantis is smart, which has yet to be proven, it should go full afterburner with this notion.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
Next